User blog:SPARTAN 119/Alan Wake (self-titled series) vs Michael Edwards (Eternal Darkness)
Alan Wake, the writer who challenged the cosmic horror that lay hidden beneath Cauldron Lake VS Michael Edwards, the industrial firefighter who battled the forces of a Lovecraftian horror in a hidden temple in the Middle East. WHO IS DEADLIEST!? =Alan Wake= As a child, he had a fear of darkness. Alan was afraid of monsters in the dark, and would fight sleep to the bitter end out of fear. His mother gave him an old, used broken-off light-switch dubbed The Clicker. Every time he would flip the switch on it, a magical light would turn on and the monsters would vanish. Over time, he conquered his fear of darkness. He never really knew his father and he would sit alone at playgrounds as a child, and pretend he didn't miss him. His mother had to raise him almost all of his life. At some point he met Barry Wheeler and they became close and true friends. At one point, Alan became interested in writing. He became an avid reader of Stephen King and other horror writers, and then started writing his own stories using vivid imagination. Alan's first story, The Errand Boy, was published at a young age and he became famous after writing his next series of novels; a set of crime and suspense novels focused on a cynical Max-Payne-like cop named Alex Casey. With his lifelong friend Barry as his agent, Alan rose to becoming famous. But as he wrote more and more books, he gained a constant following of annoying fans and interfering paparazzi. He grew a temper, and then came under significant heat after he punched a journalist who wouldn't leave him alone. At one point, Alan married a photographer named Alice. They lived together in a New York City apartment together at least as far back as three years prior to the Bright Falls incident. But as he finished his Alex Casey series, he began to suffer once more from writer's block and insomnia. There was trouble in their marriage, and Alan kept on coming home drunk from parties. The two got into many fights, with Alan constantly frustrated at his inability to write anything at all. =Michael Edwards= Michael Edwards was a Canadian industrial firefighter who, in 1991, was sent to help extinguish burning oil wells set on fire by the Iraqi troops under Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War. Edwards uses a charge of dynamite to blow out a fire by creating a powerful blast of air, however, as he does so, the dynamite detonates prematurely, killing Edward's collegues, McCormick and Patterson and causing the ground under Edwards to collapse, causing him to fall into an ancient temple to the Ancients, four mysterious extradimensional horrors older than humanity, Chattur'gha, Ulyaoth, Xellotath, and Mantarok. Edwards meets the ghost of a 15th century Italian architect named Roberto Bianchi, who was sacrificed to the Ancients centuries earlier. Bianchi gives Edwards the "essence" of one of the Ancients, the specific Ancient depends on the player's actions earlier in the game. Edwards is then attacked by a couple zombies, and quickly dispatches them with his fire axe. Nearby, Edwards finds the zombie's previous victim, a dead soldier, with a Glock 17 pistol and an (anachronistically placed) XM29 combination assault rifle/grenade launcher. Arming himself with this heavy firepower, Edwards proceeds to shoot his way through hordes of the minions of an Ancient specified by the player's actions earlier in the game until he finds the Tome of Eternal Darkness, a mysterious book that chronicles previous people's encounters with Ancients, learning of the evil that lurks in the temple, as well as a number of powerful magic spells for healing wounds, supercharging weapons etc. Edwards later gets a hold of a C-4 charge and some blasting caps, and is instructed my a mysterious disembodied voice to set the charges in a room centered around a bridge of a deep pit. Edwards realizes that this will bring down the whole temple, and uses and "Enchant Item" spell he discovered in the Tome to supercharge the C-4, before setting the bomb. Edwards escapes before the bomb detonates, destroying the temple and killing all of the monsters within. Edwards later sends the "essence" and possibly some other items depending on the player's action to the home of Edward Roivas, where essence falls into the hands of Edward's daughter Alex, who uses it in the final battle of the game. =Weapons= Handguns Beretta 92 (Alan) The Beretta 92 is a series of 9x19 Parabellum firing pistols developed by the Italian company, Beretta. Based around older Beretta pistols, the 92 was first produced in 1975. The pistol has been modified to accompany larger rounds like the .40 S&W and fire in three round bursts, featured in the Beretta 93R. Dozens of countries have adopted the pistol and have been used by their police departments and armies. The M9 was specifically designed for the United States military and is popularly used because of its light weight, low recoil, accuracy, and fast rate of fire. Alan's Beretta has a 10-round magazine, the smallest available for the weapon, and is chambered for 9mm. Glock 17 (Mike) The Glock handgun series is one of the most modern firearms available on the market to civilians, coming into service in the 1980's. It fires the standard 9x19mm Parabellum round, but can fire other rounds, depending on the variation of the gun. It is widely used by police and paramilitary forces and is popular with noncombatants due to its ease of use and handling. Mike's Glock is a 9mm (Glock 17) with a 17-round magazine. 119's Edge Mike's Glock 17 for its superior capacity. Assault Rifles M16A1 (Alan) The M16 (officially Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is the United States military designation for the AR-15 rifle adapted for semi-automatic, three-round burst and full-automatic fire. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 from ArmaLite, and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle. Alan's M16 is an A1 model with a non-standard 25-round magazine. The M16 has a rate of fire of 750-900 rpm and a range of 500 meters for a point target and 800m for an areas target. XM-29 OICW KE Module (Mike) The XM29 OICW (Objective Individual Combat Weapon) was a series of prototypes of a new type weapons combining an assault rifle with a grenade launcher that fired 20 mm HE airbursting projectiles. Ultimately the project was shelved in favor of the Heckler & Koch XM8 and Heckler & Koch XM25, of the two only the XM25 was continued. The KE (kinetic energy) module of the OICW consisted of a Heckler and Koch G-36 assault rifle, a 5.56mm weapon with a range of up to 800 meters, and a rate of fire of 800 rpm. The weapon was fed with a 30-round magazine and carried a 6x scope with laser rangefinder and thermal and night vision settings. 119's Edge Mike's OICW KE Module for its superior optics, range, and magazine capacity. Special Weapons AA-12 (Alan) The Auto Assault-12 (AA-12), originally designed and known as the Atchisson Assault Shotgun, is a shotgun developed in 1972 by Maxwell Atchisson. The current 2005 version has been developed over 18 years since the patent was sold to Military Police Systems, Inc. The original design was the basis of several later weapons, including the USAS-12. The weapon is selective fire, operating as a semi-automatic, or in fully automatic mode at 300 rounds per minute. It is fed from either an 8-shell box magazine, or a 20- or 32-shell drum magazine. Alan's AA12 has an 8-shell magazine firing buckshot. XM-29 HE Module (Mike) The XM29 OICW (Objective Individual Combat Weapon) was a series of prototypes of a new type weapons combining an assault rifle with a grenade launcher that fired 20 mm HE airbursting projectiles. Ultimately the project was shelved in favor of the Heckler & Koch XM8 and Heckler & Koch XM25, of the two only the XM25 was continued. The HE (high explosive) module consisted of the 20mm "smart grenade" launcher, with rounds designed to detonate at the distance set using the range finder, or simply to explode on impact. The weapon has an effective range of about 500 meters, with the projectiles trajectory acting more like that of a light cannon shell than a conventional grenade launcher, with the round flying on a straight path. 119's Edge Mike's XM29 HE Module for its longer range and greater firepower. =X-Factors= Explanations In terms of training, neither Alan nor Mike had any real military training, Alan being a writer and Mike a firefighter respectively. However, Mike's job as an industrial firefighter is a physically demanding job, meaning he is no doubt in very good physical condition, while Alan is in average, but not exceptional physical condition. In terms of weaponry, Mike gets a definite edge, particularly due to his XM-29 and its ability to function as both an assault rifle and a grenade launcher. Now, here's where it starts to get a little more difficult- in terms of combat experience, Alan has probably been battling the Dark Presence for longer than Mike has the forces of the Ancients, however, we must also think of the threat level of the opponents they have faced: As Drayco90 said on the discussion page for Alan Wake, "Alan's never fought anything that didn't have a huge, easy to abuse weakness.", typically a weakness against light. Most of Alan's adversaries consisted of Taken, which could be deshielded using a simple flashlight and then brought down with a few well-placed rounds, and for the most part, carried only melee weapons. The other common foe of Alan was a poltergeist object, which could be disintegrated by concentrated exposure to light. Mike, on the other hand, faced the minions of the Ancients, including zombies which are far more durable than normal zombies, surviving even decapitation, only being killed by a finishing blow while downed or being cut or blasted clean in half. In addition to that, you have ten foot-tall, three headed, lightning shooting "Horrors", as well as Gatekeepers, creatures capable of offensive and summmoning magic, and armed with bat-like wings that can be used as shields against rifle-caliber bullets and even grenades. It should also be noted that Mike was one of only three people (prior to Alex) to encounter the minions of the Ancients and live to tell the tale. Finally, there is the issue of mental health. Mike surely had his sanity drained by the powers of the monsters of the Ancients, however, he could restore it once he got hold of the Tome of Eternal Darkness and its power magic. Alan, on the other hand, had a history of insomnia, anger issues, alcoholism, and possibly substance abuse, and may be subject to hallucinations brought on the his issues in combination with the power of the Dark Presence. For the reasons discussed in the last two paragraphs, I am calling both combat experience and mental health even, leaving the judgement up to the voter. As for intelligence, Mike both men are of average intellect, however, Mike's career as an industrial firefighter would give him a knowledge of the behavior of fire and explosives, as well as a limited knowledge of medicine and human physiology, knowledge that would be more useful in a fight than Alan's as a writer. =Battle= In a flash of light, Alan Wake was transported away from his battle with Mr. Scratch in Night Springs. Instead, Alan found himself in what looked like a mysterious ancient temple that looked to be of Egyptian or Mesopotamian origin. Curious as to how he got there, Alan walked forward into the next room, hoping the answer to exactly what happened somewhere in this temple. In the next room, a large, high-ceilinged chamber with countless columns on either side and a large stone altar in the middle, Alan was greeted by a startling, but not at all unexpected sight- he was used to facing inhuman horrors by now. The creature, however, did not look like anything he faced before. It was a bipedal creature about ten feet tall, with a skelatal humanoid head, but it had wings like a bat, though it didn't appear to use them to fly. The monster also had a scythe like appendage of its head, positioned like scorpion's tail. The creature, which Alan did not know was called a Gatekeeper, turned towards Alan, its eyes glowing green. Alan raised his M16A1 to fire, but at that moment, the Gatekeeper closed its wings. The bullets simply bounced off its body. The creature then fired off a beam of red-colored energy, which Alan only narrowly dodged. Alan tried to flank the creature, but it turned, keeping its bulletproof wings between its body and Alan's rifle. The Gatekeeper advanced on Alan. It was now feet from him. Then, the creature opened up its wings, and raised its "scythe-tail thing" to strike. Immediately, Alan raised his rifle and emptied the rest of his magazine into the monster. The head Gatekeeper's unprotected body was riddled with bullets, and the monster collapsed to the floor, dead. Alan reloaded his M16A1, unaware that the dark magic that embued the Gatekeeper's had done severe damage to his sanity. Alan turned to face the other entrance to the chamber, and immediately spotted a "Taken" in the room, but this one was no ordinary Taken- it had an assault rifle.... "Great", Alan said as he shone his flashlight on the Taken, depleting its shield of darkness, "They can use guns now". Alan fired a three round burst at the Taken, but the bullets all missed as the Taken ducked behind a pillar. What Alan didn't realize, was that "Taken" was not a taken at all, but a Canadian industrial firefighter who had found himself facing another cosmic horror... or that he had been transported through time and space, to a temple in Iraq, 1991, immediately after the Gulf War. Michael Edwards was confused. He saw what he was sure was another human, yet they fired on him- Mike had never seen a zombie use a gun, and it couldn't be the Iraqis- they had surrendered weeks ago. He couldn't think who the man could be. But that mattered little at the moment. Alan sent several more missed shots at Mike, before he retaliated with his XM-29 OICW. Mike laid down sustain fired, pinning Alan behind a column on the opposite end of the room. As Mike reloaded his weapon, Alan made a dash for the altar in the middle of the room and took cover behind it. Mike was about to peek out from behind the pillar when a burst from a different automatic weapon pinned him down- Alan had fired his AA-12 assault shotgun. Mike decided it was time to end this. He swung out from cover, OICW at the ready. Mike pulled the trigger, and this time, it was not the lower assault rifle barrel that fired, but the upper barrel- the 20mm smart grenade launcher. The 20mm high explosive airbursting shell flew across the room, and exploded in midair right above Alan's head. The explosion blew away half of Alan's face, and riddled his entire body with shrapnel. Alan Wake was dead before his mangled remains hit the floor of the temple. After waiting a few moments to make sure his foe was dead, Mike walked over to his fallen foe and said, "Sorry to do this to you, but you did shoot first". Mike then took Alan's weapons and ammo, deciding you couldn't have enough firepower when fighting a Lovecraftian horror, and ventured on, deeper into the temple. Expert's Opinions Michael Edwards won this battle mainly because of the far superior firepower of his weapons, particularly the XM-29, which combined an assault rifle and an advanced "smart" grenade launcher in one package. Also contributing to the victory was Mike's higher level of physical fitness. To see the original battle, weapons, and votes, click here Category:Blog posts